[NFB-DB] Things to consider before iOS upgrading to iOS 13

[Scott Davert]

Hello.
As many of you know, iOS 13.0 will be released on Thursday, September
19. There are many bugs that I and other colleagues have documented
that blind, low vision, and deaf-blind users may wish to know about
prior to upgrading. As a braille user, I will not be upgrading my main
device to 13.0 due to major issues with text input. For example, When
composing an email or note using a braille display keyboard, after 5
or 6 sentences, braille stops responding to input. This also applies
to editing an already composed email or note. When typing using a
braille display, text shortcuts do not work unless you write them in
eight-dot mode. The workaround for this issue is to press space with
dots 2-3-6 to toggle braille input to this mode, type the text
shortcut, and then press space with 2-3-6 again to get back to your
preferred braille code.
Although this problem is not new in iOS 13, using an external keyboard
to move through text fields by paragraph or to select text by
paragraph has become even more inconsistent. In most text editors,
this functionality is now effectively broken completely.
For those using Either Classic or Smart Invert with their iOS devices,
neither will behave reliably. Specifically, our testing indicates that
anybody seeking to use a combination of display settings that results
in light text on a dark background is likely to find that their
device's display will spontaneously and randomly switch between light
on dark and dark on light during normal use.
Those are the most serious issues identified, but not the only ones.
For a complete list, please see
https://www.applevis.com/blog/accessibility-bugs-introduced-and-resolved-ios-13-blind-and-low-vision-users


HTH,
Scott